I told a story about a deleted draft of Woody’s Nightmare from Toy Story 2, a scene from the movie that scared me when I was a kid. However, there was a much more messed up story I had seen in my life.
Every time I mind my own business, it doesn’t go away.
I was sitting on a hill of sand in my backyard, relaxing. I even decided to go into a pit next to it. When I was walking all over it, my foot somehow felt a cardboard-feeling.
I examined through the sand to see where the cardboard-feeling came from, and I find a box sealed shut. I couldn’t grab it all the way out, so I went to get a shovel to dig it out.
I cleaned the sand off, and put it in the house. I grabbed scissors and cut the tape open.
When I opened up the box, it was revealed to be a Toy Story 2 DVD. Well, in a CD case, for some reason. This DVD is about two internship recreations of the Woody’s Nightmare sequence.
The cover consisted of Woody in a dustbin, reaching his hand out as if he were calling for help, while the mismatched toy arms were about to attack him.
And surprising thing is, this DVD’s release date was “September 17th, 2002”, fifteen days after I was born.
I was quite surprised I decided to watch it. However, that painful memory of when I first watched the first deleted draft of Woody’s Nightmare bothered me.
I hesitated either if I should watch the DVD or just get rid of it.
But I made up my mind. Horrible idea later on.
So, I put the disc in my Portable DVD Player and moved it to a position to make me get comfortable.
It took me to a menu, with all the main Toy Story 2 Characters.
And the background music was a portion of a soundtrack from the movie where Jessie meets Woody for the first time.
And the two nightmare internship recreations on the selection column were:
1. Nightmare about Zurg (Completed: November 2nd, 2001)
2. Andy’s Cousin (Completed: September 3rd, 2002)
The dates surprised me; the Nightmare about Zurg was completed on the day Monsters, Inc. was released in cinemas, and the nightmare about Andy’s cousin was completed a day after I was born.
I pressed “Play All” so I can watch all of them without going back to the menu to watch one of the others.
Before the nightmare about Zurg started, there was a warning screen.
“These internship animations are NOT for anybody with sensitivity issues. Also, please beware of any disturbing moments here and there. Viewer Discretion is Advised.”
“Oh, no, here we go again…”
However, the nightmare sequence started with a scene in the final cut, with Woody watching Andy and his Mum drive away to Cowboy Camp. Once it showed the next day, with Woody sleeping on the shelf, instead of the Davis’ car driving into the shot through the window, there was a sudden bang on the wall Woody was next to.
This woke up Woody he went to investigate where the banging was coming from.
“Uh, guys?” Woody called the other toys. “Do you hear something?”
On the floor, Mr Potato Head, Rocky, Slinky and Rex were playing cards (like in the movie). They looked up at Woody and Mr Potato Head said, “Nope, don’t hear anything.”
“I’m pretty sure I heard something,” Woody replied.
“I’m coming for you, Sheriff…” cooed a very familiar sinister voice.
Woody gasped in shock and called out to the other toys.
“Guys! There is someone in the house!”
The wall banged again, knocking Woody back, leading him to dangle one-armed on the shelf with his working arm.
“Oh, No!” Buzz said, on top of the bed.
“This is bad…” Hamm said, next to the door.
Rex screamed, “Everybody run!”
“Hide!” Slinky called.
The rest of Andy’s toys hid under the bed, while some of them hid in the toy box.
Woody hesitated to jump off the shelf because he would get hurt. He couldn’t move his broken arm due to the size of the rip.
Somebody banged on the wall again, knocking Woody into the pile of cards.
Like in the movie, Woody fell into an empty space of flying cards of aces. This time, he is active and is screaming as he fell.
Once he fell through a larger card, he plummeted to a familiar location earlier in the film.
It was the battle area from the Buzz Lightyear Video Game.
Woody got up, putting his hat back on with his working arm. He looked around to see what this place was, and right behind him, Zurg was elevating up in the centre.
And holy shit, Zurg looked psychotic; he was all blood-stained, he had cracked teeth a broken eye.
“Hello, cowboy.” Zurg said.
“You’re… Zurg?” Woody asked in confusion. “The arch-enemy of Buzz Lightyear?”
“That is correct, sheriff. I am the arch-enemy of Buzz Lightyear. And it’s time to die.”
Woody scrambled back to his feet to run, but a familiar face, landed in front of him, resulting in Woody to be pushed down to the floor face first.
As he looked up, that familiar face was, sweet jesus, Tex the THX Mascot.
“Hey there, Pride.” Tex chuckled, smiling sinisterly.
“Yes, yes, I hired this robot to be my assistant for this execution” Zurg revealed.
“Execution?!” Woody exclaimed in horror. “You two are going to destroy me?!”
Tex then said, “that’s right, we are gonna finish your life painless and quick. It’s showtime for the Texiest of all Texas!”
Woody then spotted the bridge of discs from far above. He got back on his feet to run.
“Hey! Get back here!” Tex yelled!
“Get him, Tex!” Zurg ordered.
As Woody was about to make the final jump to the door, Tex suddenly flew into him and they flew high up into the air.
The two then flew back towards the ground and Tex hovered in front of Zurg, holding Woody in front of Zurg’s already-pointed Ion Blaster.
“Go Ka-Blooey, Zurgy Purgy!” Tex shouted in excitement.
“No! Please don’t hurt me! I’m just a good leader for my friends! What did I do to deserve this?”
Zurg then blasted Woody in his boot, causing it to disintegrate.
“That was my boot!” Woody angrily shouted.
Zurg replied, “don’t care. They’re just useless anyway.”
Every single light in the battle area turned dark-red, to symbolize blood.
He then grabbed Woody by the throat to strangle him.
“You want to know what you did to deserve this?” Asked Zurg.
“No.” Woody spoke through his chokes.
“You are friends with Buzz Lightyear, who is my enemy, and now I think you should have a little waterslide down here.”
Zurg pointed to the empty hole where he elevated up to the battle area. The mismatched toy arms popped up out of it, covered in blood.
“No! NO! You can’t do this!” Woody exclaimed in horror.
“It’s for the best, Pride!” Zurg shouted deviously, and he began laughing maniacally.
Tex then cut off Woody’s broken arm with an axe.
“There. I fixed you.”
Woody was shocked, but he started to get angry. “You didn’t fix me, you just cut my arm off!”
Zurg then threw Woody away from him. Woody then grabbed the edge of the empty hole while hanging one-armed.
Zurg and Tex walked up to their almost-eliminated victim.
“Are you going to enjoy your fall, Sheriff?” Tex asked sinisterly.
Woody angrily retorted, “No, you two are killing machines!”
“Tex, can you do the honours?” Zurg asked Tex.
“Okilly Dokilly Jokilly.” Tex replied.
“What are you going to do?” Asked Woody.
“This!” Tex exclaimed as they held up a handsaw.
“Let’s see if you can hang on with NO arms!”
Tex and Zurg then laughed maniacally as the Former began sawing Woody’s remaining arm.
“Please! No! Stop! Don’t do this! No! NO! NOOOOOOOOO!” Woody cried.
Tex finally sawed Woody’s remaining arm off, and Woody fell down the empty pit, screaming.
It then cut to Woody waking up screaming and breathing.
He saw both of his arms were still on him, so he sighed in relief.
And the second deleted internship animation started. Oh god, it was so messed up I couldn’t sleep for nights.
It started with Woody waking up from his inactivity and realizing he is put on a shelf, and noticed his broken arm. After it showed Buzz and Bo Peep exchanging sad glances, it cut to a shot of Andy’s House at night time.
In this shot, there was a red bike and a yellow bike helmet parked against the house.
Woody and the rest of Andy’s toys were sleeping in the room. Not long after, he heard somebody crying quietly.
Woody woke up, hearing the crying. Woody darted his eyes around the room wondering where it is coming from.
The rest of Andy’s Toys woke up, getting scared.
“Wh-who’s he-here?” Rex nervously stuttered.
“Woody, do you hear that?” Buzz asked.
Woody then reassured everybody to remain calm.
“Don’t worry, guys, I will check downstairs to see who is crying,”
Woody then hung on to the blue shelf and dropped onto the edge of the other shelf.
He then peeked through the door to see who was crying. And it was a 13-year-old girl with light brown hair, a pink shirt, a green skirt and red socks.
The girl was still crying. Woody felt hurt seeing her cry like this.
“My cousin loves Woody. Why wouldn’t he take him to camp?” the girl said.
“Cousin?” Woody said in confusion, under his breath.
“I know toys are alive. I feel it.”
Woody gasped in shock. She heard what the girl said.
“In fact, I sense Woody.” The girl said, no longer crying.
Woody hid behind the door. However, the girl entered Andy’s room and picked him up next to the door. She picked him up and stared at him uncomfortably with her bloodshot eyes after crying.
“I know you’re alive, my grandmother told me she saw her toys come to life. So please… talk.” The girl pleaded.
Woody had no other choice but come alive.
“Yes, it’s true, I talk. I kept this secret for years, but you wanted to know so here.”
“Thank you.” The girl said. “I am Alicia, Andy’s cousin.”
“You’re Andy’s cousin?” Woody said in surprise. “What are you doing in Andy’s house?
“Well…” Alicia began. “Andy’s mom called my mother and asked if I can go to her and Andy’s house so she can get some company until Andy gets back.”
“And you cried because he didn’t take me to Cowboy Camp?” Woody asked sadly.
“Yes, I am easily sensitive.” Alicia replied, choking up.
“Well, I heard you are broken, and I did this with my old broken toys when I was younger.”
“What are you going to do?” Woody asked in concern.
Alicia grabbed Woody and exited right through the door.
On the porch, there was a dustbin, as seen in the final cut. Alicia opened up the lid and held Woody over the it.
Alicia glumly said, as her voice faded to a demonic effect, “I’m sorry, Woody, but things have to be the way they have to be.”
And her brown eyes suddenly turned dark red.
Woody gasped.
“What?!” He exclaimed. “You can’t do this! Not every child throws their broken toys out!”
Behind him, the mismatched toy arms rose behind him, but they were all blood-red and full of dangerous weapons.
The arms grabbed Woody and they strangled him.
“Alicia! Snap out of it! This is not how things should be! I love you and Andy!”
At that moment, Andy appeared behind Alicia.
“I saw the whole thing, Woody. You are alive.”
His voice faded demonically like in various foreign dubs of the Nightmare Sequence.
Woody screamed multiple “No”s as he was being pulled into the grave.
“Andy! Alicia! I love you two, and you two love me! I would never do anything to hurt either of you!”
Andy and Alicia watched Woody through the dustbin, as the sky turned white.
Bye, Woody..." Andy said sadly, echoing through the dustbin.
As Woody was almost getting to the bottom of the dustbin, he started choking on the blood-red stench.
At the bottom, Woody was falling into an empty abyss.
He realized his body was suddenly ripping apart, both his arms were tearing, and his eyes turned hollow black with red pinpricks.
Woody let out a blood-curdling scream as his unknown fate happened.
It then cut back to reality where Woody woke up from his nightmare, with the same footage from the movie.
The second animation ended, and I was in disbelief.
I pulled the disc out of the DVD Player, put it back in its case and smashed it.
I even buried it into where I found it.
I put my hands over my head in complete despair. I had seen what appeared to be the most horrifying version of Woody’s Nightmare.
I didn’t sleep for the rest of the week. Everytime I sleep, I will see hallucinations of Zurg, Tex, Andy and Alicia staring at me. Even Woody’s deformed body.
Please do me a favour and don’t watch any lost DVD you discover.